first few days!

awake for 36 hours, a room with 4 single beds, and trying to eat vegetables

hello!

i am excited to be penning my first official letter from abroad. i arrived into dublin on wednesday, and have been attempting to adjust to the time zone ever since then. the almost 2 full days i spent awake while traveling did not do me any favors. the first two days here have been fantastic! we have sufficiently traversed the most touristy parts of the city (multiple times), finding unfortunately high concentrations of americans everywhere due to the american college football game that just so happens to be taking place here on saturday. we ended up staying in temple bar, which is by far the most tourist-heavy part of the city. people were out on the streets singing sweet caroline (yeah i wish i was kidding) until 5am. in another funny turn of events, our hotel room had 4 very skinny single beds, just enough for two people and my 60-pound bag :)

other than that, there have been many highlights and firsts! let me share some with you!

on wednesday: first glimpse of ireland from the plane, first visit to trinity, lots of fantastic street art that wasn’t banksy, and night one of the magnetic fields (where they played all my favorite songs but i did fall asleep for part of)

flying into dublin!

just inside the front gate of trinity

the art of temple bar

the mag fields!

on thursday: spending quality time with the book of kells (not pictured, photos aren’t allowed!), a trip to the national gallery and finding my new favorite painting, learning lots about bogs, the best asian-fusion, my first guinness, and night two of the magnetic fields (the night i didn’t fall asleep)

the beautiful long room library at trinity, what you enter after you see the book of kells

just a little guy in the national gallery

my new favorite painting, called achill horses, by mainie jellett (1897-1944), an irish painter, in 1941. this work really surprised me because i am not the world’s biggest fan of cubism

a fully preserved hand of an iron-age man who was found in a bog, in the national museum of archeology. apparently bogs have lots of special qualities that make it so that they can preserve very delicate parts of people and things like hair and nails!

the amazing zodiac tiled floor at the museum of archeology

this was not my pint of guinness (i didn’t take a photo), but this is what a good one is supposed to look like

mag fields pt.2

now, we head off the the countryside for six days of touring the hills and seas and such! i’m sure i will have much more to share soon, but in the meantime, stay well!

talk soon,

alli xx